Mandeville

State highway officials say work will begin in April on a busy stretch of U.S. Highway 190 that straddles Bayou Chinchuba in Mandeville.

The Times-Picayune reports the $11.3 million project will correct what many frustrated motorists have referred to as a hiccup in an earlier road improvement effort designed to ease east-west traffic flow through the heart of the city.

Officials say construction of a $1.8 million pedestrian and bike path along West Causeway Approach that will help connect the east and west sides of Mandeville should be completed in two to three weeks.

Mayor Donald Villere tells The Times-Picayune plans are in the works to improve traffic signals around North Causeway Boulevard and Monroe Street to make it easier for bikers and pedestrians to cross the busy intersection.

City officials say the signals will ease traffic flow and remove a major hurdle for people who opt not to use motorized vehicles.

Officials say repairs to the Mandeville fishing pier, which was damaged by Hurricane Isaac, will take about three months to complete and could cost around $200,000.

Public Works Director David deGeneres tells The Times-Picayune the popular 400-foot pier at Sunset Point on the city's lakefront will remain closed until the repairs are complete.

City officials are hoping that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will help pay for the repairs. If federal money is made available, officials say the city would have to pay only 25 percent of the repair costs.

There are 151,347 trees, more or less, within Mandeville's city limits, and only about 7 percent of them are live oaks.

Those are among the findings of a study done for the city by two graduate students and their professors at the Southern University Agricultural Research & Extension Center.

Maggie Trenary, an inspector in the city planning department, tells The Times-Picayune (http://bit.ly/NrgLj5) that the low number of live oaks was a surprise. She says the city will have to plant more.